Freedom of Religion My Ass.

Oh the phony fury of dress-wearing Catholic Bishops wanting the "freedom of religion" to keep oppressing women.  It really is ludicrously over the top for the Catholic church, an organization that arrested, tortured, and even executed people for "heresy", to scream that they are being persecuted on the grounds of religious freedom.  What is the persecution they're screaming about?  Asking them to do what everyone else is required to do.  That's so unfair.  At issue is asking them to cover a MASSIVE $20 per YEAR average cost for contraception, and now OBAMA says it will be required by law to be FREE.  But FREE still isn't good enough, if you are an insane fanatic, which the Catholic leadership definitely are, even though the average catholic is perfectly sane and reasonable by comparison.  Yes, most Catholics are A-OK with contraception.  Only the extremist idiocy of the church leadership has a problem with.  Don't believe me.  Well you're wrong.  Here are the actual FACTS.  The OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Catholics SUPPORT CONTRACEPTION.  As in 98% of Catholic women support contraception usage.  The church leadership does not own the church.  The church membership is the church, not the people who undemocratically claim divine right to rule it.  The leadership are only the mafia gangsters (literally, in some cases) who hijacked the church for their own selfish benefit.  

Here's another FACT.  Catholic leadership has been preaching single-issue opposition to Democrats since Roe v. Wade, and that issue has been their OPPOSITION to freedom of choice.  They said to oppose Mondale, and Dukakis.  They said to oppose Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and now Obama.  You can never make a fanatic happy.  They even opposed Carter, and Carter was adamantly against abortion.  Screw them.  They will always instruct church members to vote against Democrats, and members will ignore them like they have been for decades anyway.

  

The fact is that Catholics have a doctrine of "primacy of conscience", but the church leadership doesn't want its members to be able to think for themselves and exercise it.  They demand that their followers march in lockstep with the pope even though there is NO EX CATHEDRA ruling on ABORTION, so their TEACHING IS NOT BINDING ON ANY CATHOLICS.  Yep, the Catholic church is too chickenshit to make this an official policy, because they know it would be the nail in their coffin.  So they do everything short of this, and this is the reason for the hysterics.  

Unfortunately for the Catholic church, Obama has outmaneuvered them once again.  He has given them a deal that makes real Catholic women, and non-catholics employed in these organizations as well, while technically being "revenue neutral".  This makes the church look even more out-of-step than ever, and increases Obama's stature with moderates, independents, and women, who are the people disposed to vote for him anyway.